Start of something big.....

[wroughtn_harv]

I'm hoping to have it poured and finished Friday the 6th. I have sixteen hunded feet ready and the first pour will be forty eight hundred square feet. I have to fabricate and install thirty plus weld plates. The plates will be tied into the rebar skeleton of course.

I won't be doing the pour and finish myself. That's subcontracted out and they're charging us forty cents a square foot to pour and finish. The concrete is costing us $106.00 a cubic yard. We only have three choices with the concrete supplier. I chose the one that was joined at the hip with the subcontractor that's handling the pour and finish. They're both local and I really wasn't interested in bringing in crews from the city to do the work. I could just see ten to eleven trucks sitting there and a crew with mechanical issues forty miles away.

I've came up with the design fo the sliding doors. There will be two of them per opening, six openings, and the design and construction might interest some of you.

I understand that some might consider me crazy to be bent over tying rebar all day when there are plenty of young people out there needing the experience. I'm not a masochist and I do feel the pain. But one of the principles that I believe in is doing it for the doing. So whether it's tying the rebar, digging the beam, welding the steel framework up, or just problem solving. Each task comes with a reward and a cost. Embracing the task as a whole, having a cost and providing a reward, is good enough.

[Lloyd_E]

Harv,

You should have a group of carpenter/construction students following you.
The main thing they would learn - hopefully - is work ethic and than technic.

As I once said to my blacksmith friend with 20 years of experience: you make it look so easy. Somethings he does in 30 second stakes me 30 minutes.

A true master.

lloyd

[groundcover]

Sure looks good Harv,TLC should do a show of your work, looks a lot more interesting than some of the stuff the have now!

[EddieWalker]

Harvey,

With the new law going into effect last September, how has it been dealing with the inspectors for your foundation? At the CE class that I had to go to for my Contractors License, there was allot of confusion on the new regulations requiring all buildings in the state to be inspected. Most of the confusion was about the foundation design and who engineered it. In the end, the clarification was that it didn't have to have an engineers stamp, but did have to pass the code that the inspector you hire follows. Since there are different codes all over the state, it's mostly a localized standard.

I haven't hired any one for out of city limits inspections yet, so I don't have any knowledge of how it's working out. I've had some send me their cards and price lists for doing the inspections, but I'll cross that bridge when I have to.

Most of my jobs outside of city limits are under $10,000 which is under the limit for the new law requiring that all new buildings in the state of Texas pass three inspections.

Eddie

[Erik_in_Hoyt]

Harv, looking good - I'm taking notes as you go, so please supply lots of pictures so I can build my own 30x48 garage/woodshop this spring!

[mjncad]

Harv:

Is your slab rebar spaced 24" on center?

[weldingisfun]

Originally Posted by Willl

I believe it's the professionals that should be taking hints from you.

Nice work Harv.

I agree. The pro's tend to take too many shortcuts. Keep it up Harv, you are The Man!

[Eightpoint]

I have a question regarding the concrete forms - what is the purpose behind the flat 2x4 nailed on top of the form boards - is this to help keep them straight or for some other purpose? I don't spend much time around construction sites so maybe this is normal but the few jobs I have seen only had the vertical 2x form boards.

Thanks for sharing - am looking forward to following this project.

[EddieWalker]

The flat 2x4 is for the siding to overlap the sil plate and bring the water below the concrete that the sil plate is attached to. On wood frame construction, this is also done as a brick ledge to support the brick on the wall.

Eddie

[Eightpoint]

Thanks Eddie - that makes sense. I don't have a lot of experience with slab foundations so I see where that would be the way to go to keep the water out. The forms I have experience with were for sidewalks or driveways which wouldn't need the lip.